


You Make Me Wanna Stay

by aces_low



Series: Unlocked Doors [8]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Roommate Talk lots of it, Studying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 14:34:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12889935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: The housemates make plans for summer and where everyone is going to live next year.





	You Make Me Wanna Stay

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in May, right before finals time and the end of the school year. Chronologically, after Perfect Fit.
> 
> Brad and Nate (and Poke and Kocher) are juniors  
> Walt and Ray are sophomores
> 
> I do have plans to write some summer stuff (Nate's 21st birthday, y'all!), as well as stuff for next year (I honestly could probably just keep writing and writing and writing for this series). So, please don't hesitate to let me know if there are any moments you are interested seeing with these guys (and not just the main four) I have storylines planned for both Poke and Kocher for their senior years. :D
> 
>  
> 
> The characters shown here are not meant to represent the real men, they are just based on the characters of the HBO show.

Brad almost doesn’t hear the knock over the music in his headphones. He turns toward the door, removing his headphones just enough to verify that he had heard a knock before Kocher pokes his head through.

“House meeting,” Kocher says as an explanation.

Brad groans but pauses his music and stands, following Kocher out of his room.

“Can’t Poke just tell Nate not to fuck Ray in the kitchen again without us there?”

Kocher snickers but explains, “actually, Nate called this one.”

That piques Brad’s interest enough to stop him from making a comment about unnecessary house meetings as they enter the kitchen. Poke is already sitting at the table, eating a banana and scrolling through his phone. 

“Where’s Nate?” Brad asks, sitting down. “Not very professional to call a meeting and then be the last one to show up.”

“I’m here, hold on,” Nate calls through the open door of his bedroom. He walks through a moment later holding papers.

“What’s up?” Kocher asks as Nate takes the fourth chair.

“Our lease is up at the end of next month,” Nate explains, holding up the forms in his hand. “Do we all still want to renew it for another year?”

Brad nods, watching as the other two nod as well.

“I’m subletting to Lilley for the summer,” Poke says, folding the peel over the uneaten half of his banana and setting it on the table. “But other than that, I’m in.”

Nate nods, as Poke has already run this by them about a month ago, and he looks over at Brad.

“Have you found anyone to sublet to?” Nate asks.

Brad shakes his head, he had thought Stafford was going to take his room, but he’d recently decided that he was going home for the summer instead. 

“Okay, then that leads to the next things I wanted to talk about,” Nate says, sitting up a little straighter.

Poke sighs. “Here we go.”

“What?”

“Nothing, I just already know what you’re gonna say.”

“Well then don’t look so annoyed about it,” Nate says, frowning at Poke before turning back to the table. “Ray-“

“Yep, called it.”

“Shut up,” Nate huffs, glaring at Poke again before continuing. “Ray is going to be working on a project for the engineering department this summer, so he won’t be using your room, but he can be the fourth person paying the rent, fifth if you’re able to find someone.”

Brad nods, Ray had mentioned the project, he’s not sure why he hadn’t considered he’d need a place to stay.

“And…finish your pitch, Fick,” Poke says, circling his finger in the air for a moment before picking up his banana again.

“ _And_ come August, I’d like Ray to stay. He’s here all the time anyway so it’s not like there’s gonna be a big change there, and that means rent and all the utilities are split five ways instead of four.”

“I’m up for splitting things five ways,” Kocher says, and Nate grins at him.

Brad is just about to agree when another thought pops into his head and he frowns.

“What’s Walt gonna do?” he asks.

Nate tilts his head. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if Ray's living here, who’s Walt gonna live with?”

“I…don’t know?” Nate says, looking at the others like he’s asking for help. “I’m sure he’ll figure it out.”

Brad frowns. “It’s not really fair to Walt to take his roommate away from him.”

Nate gapes and blinks at him for several seconds before shaking his head and speaking slowly. “Surprisingly, I hadn’t factored Walt into my plans, but seriously, Brad, if that’s the only concern you have about Ray living here then I’m taking it as a yes. Walt has tons of friends and people who would be willing to live with him, it’s not like he’s gonna get left out on the street just because Ray is moving in here.”

“Is everyone forgetting that he and Ray had sex in this very kitchen where we’re sitting right no less than a month ago?” Poke asks, clearly done with focusing on Walt.

But Brad isn’t, sure, Walt probably could find a new roommate but he doesn’t need that kind of stress so close to finals.

“I cleaned the entire kitchen, even the parts we didn’t touch, I don’t know why you can never let this stuff go,” Nate argues.

“Because apparently, all the times I’ve said, ‘don’t fuck in common rooms of the house’ have gone in one ear and out the other. I alone have caught you two in the living room twice and I’ve seen you both leaving the bathroom together more times than I will ever be okay with. If he moves in here, what’s to stop you guys from just fucking in our rooms when we’re not here?”

Nate rolls his eyes. “Why would Ray living here change that? If we wanted to fuck in your room we’d have done it already.”

Poke glares. “I don’t pretend to know why you two do anything you do, all I’m saying is if I’m gonna agree with him living here there need to be some ground rules.”

Brad is bored of listening to them bicker, he knows Poke will eventually bend, Nate isn’t going to relent and decide he doesn’t need to live with Ray. He contemplates just texting Walt now to let him know that he’ll need to be roommate hunting now with the semester so close to ending. He’s a little annoyed that Nate took so long to mention this, it doesn’t allow Walt much time to figure things out.

“I doubt Ray being here an extra two nights a week is really going to change anything,” Kocher says as he types something on his phone, clearly as bored as Brad.

“Thank you,” Nate says, nodding at Kocher who is no longer paying attention. “Look, Poke, I’m sorry that you feel like I haven’t respected the common space. But I love Ray and I want to live with him for at least a year before I’m done with school and we’re separated. So, either he moves in here, or he and I will get our own apartment.”

That makes all three of them look up and over to Nate now. 

“Wait, what?” Kocher asks, phone forgotten in his hand.

Nate shrugs. “I don’t want to move out, but if it comes to living here or with Ray, I’m choosing Ray.”

Poke crosses his arms and leans back in his chair, and Brad knows Nate’s won. He’d probably be more amused if he wasn’t distracted by the idea that's suddenly popped into his head.

“Alright, fine, the little spaz can live here,” Poke relents with a huff. “But no more fucking on places I eat my meals.”

Nate opens his mouth to respond, but Brad cuts in, ready to move on to more important matters.

“Should I invite Walt to move in too?” he asks his friends.

Now he has three pairs of wide eyes directed at him and he shifts slightly in his seat.

“Jesus Christ,” Poke sighs, throwing up his arms. “No, you should not invite Walt to live here, are you out of your mind?”

“Why not? It saves him from having to find a new roommate, and we’d be splitting everything six ways instead of five,” Brad reasons.

“Someone please talk some sense into him,” Poke says to the other two.

“Brad, have you thought about this at all?” Nate asks slowly, watching Brad like he’s a wild animal he’s trying not to startle.

He shrugs. “I just told you my thoughts on it.”

“Yeah, but like have you thought about how you’d be living with Walt? You’d be sharing a room,” Kocher says.

“Yes, surprisingly that did cross my mind,” Brad says with a huff, he’d expected pushback from Poke, but not the wide-eyed worry from Nate and Kocher. “Why is me wanting to live with Walt so much worse than Nate wanting to live with Ray?”

“Well, for starters you only got your head out of your ass and made it official about a month ago,” Poke says.

“So?”

“So, last I checked you guys aren’t lesbians.”

“Brad, this is really something you should think about longer than a minute, and probably talk to Walt about,” Nate says evenly.

He huffs and leans back in his chair, glaring at his roommates for thinking he doesn’t know what he wants. They end the house meeting a moment later, now that Nate got what he wanted. Brad goes back to his room, attempting to return to studying and ignore the idea that’s beginning to grow in the back of his mind.

 

He’s barely able to make it 24 hours before he can’t help but blurt out, “I was thinking you should move into the house next year,” in the middle of him quizzing Walt on his Spanish vocabulary.

Walt just blinks at him for several seconds, not comprehending Brad’s words at first, until slowly, understanding dawns on his face.

He opens and closes his mouth a few times, apparently trying to find his words, and Brad clutches at the notes in his hands.

After a full minute of silence between them, Walt suddenly starts to laugh, hiding his head in his hands before looking back up at him.

“I thought you were serious for a minute there,” Walt says with a grin. 

Brad frowns, this is not the reaction he’d been expecting, it’s definitely not the reaction he’d played out in his head over and over last night as he’d thought about bringing up the idea to Walt.

“I was being serious.”

Walt’s grin falls and he narrows his eyes. “Brad.”

“What? You don’t want to live with me?”

“No.”

That hits Brad sharp in the chest, he has to look away to not let it show.

“Hey, don’t be upset,” Walt says, moving the notes out of Brad’s hands before crawling onto his lap to wrap his arms around his neck.

Brad keeps his own arms at his side.

Walt ducks his head to the side to catch Brad’s eye. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings.”

“It’s fine,” Brad says, shrugging.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.” Walt tightens his hold a little which prompts Brad to tentatively place his hands on Walt’s back.

“It was just an idea,” Brad tries to deflect again, realizing he’s apparently the only one who thought this was a good plan, he’d really thought Walt would be happy that he’d been the one to come up with it, instead of the other way around.

“Where did it even come from?” Walt asks, tilting his head to the side, his already sweet face looks open and concerned and Brad doesn’t think he’s capable of staying upset with Walt when he looks like that.

“Nate mentioned last night that he wants Ray to move in,” Brad explains. “And I realized that would leave you without a roommate and don't think that’s fair to you.”

“But...Garza and I are getting an apartment together,” Walt says, head still tilted in confusion. “Did I not tell you that?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Brad says, furrowing his brow. “How did you already plan that? Nate only brought it up last night.”

Walt grins. “Just because Nate only brought it up to you guys last night doesn’t mean he and Ray haven’t been talking about it. Plus, I knew about two months after they started dating they’d end up wanting to live together.”

Brad pinches his eyebrows together, he has no idea how he’d missed all of this, though in hindsight it does seem pretty obvious. 

“So, you don’t want to live with me because you’ve already made plans with Garza?” he asks. 

“I don’t want to live with you for a lot of reasons, Brad,” Walt says, hugging his arms around his neck again.

This time, Brad removes Walt’s arms from around him.

“What’s so bad about living with me?” he asks when Walt drops his arms.

Walt sighs. “We’ve only been together for a month, that’s way too early to start living together.”

“But at the start of next semester we’ll be together for four months,” Brad argues.

“Yeah, and you’ll be gone at OCS for most of that time.”

“You said you were ok with that.”

“I am, Brad. I’m so proud of you, but it’s not going to be conducive to _us_ at all and I don’t want to move in with you after not seeing you for two months. And…” Walt trails off with a shrug.

Now, it’s Brad’s turn to try and catch Walt’s eye. “And?”

Walt’s shoulders slump and he sighs. “And…I’m not really interested in feeling unwelcome in my own house when you decide that you need some space from me.”

Brad moves to stand up, but Walt maneuvers himself to sit more firmly in his lap trying to hold him in place. 

“You’re never going to believe that I want to be with you, are you?” Brad asks, really contemplating shoving Walt off at this point, if only so Walt can’t tell how much faster he is breathing and how his chest feels like it’s been stomped on.

“That’s not fair. If I didn’t think you wanted this I wouldn’t be with you. But it’s been a month, we’re still figuring this out, let’s not ruin a good thing by trying to speed it up or follow what Nate and Ray are doing. We’re not them, and that’s okay.”

Brad bows his head and takes a deep breath, trying to hear the truth in Walt’s words and shake off his hurt feelings.

“Plus, can you imagine six of us living in that house together? Take it as someone who’s lived with Ray for a year, he takes up enough space for two people.”

He can’t help but grin at that.

“Thank you for worrying about me though,” Walt says, before ducking his head to kiss Brad on the cheek. “I appreciate it.”

Brad wraps his arms back around Walt then, hugging him in closer.

Knowing Walt has a plan does make him feel a little less enthusiastic at the idea of moving in together. All the logistics of living together start flooding his brain then, apparently, the worry that Walt was going to be left without a roommate had blocked his normal ability to reason through an issue. Walt is right, on days where Brad would prefer to be alone – not just from Walt, but from everyone – he’d still have to share the room with Walt and wouldn’t be able to just shut himself away for the night.

He rests his forehead against Walt, watching Walt close his eyes and sigh. Brad is thankful that his boyfriend is capable of logical thought. Something Brad normally prides himself on, but when it comes to Walt, all bets are off, and his emotions tend to take control.

They sit like that for another minute, before Brad forces himself to pull away.

“Okay, back to studying,” he tells Walt, unwinding his arms and moving to grab the notes he’d set aside.

Walt groans and flops back down onto the bed. “My brain can’t hold any more information.”

“C’mon, let’s just finish these notes you have and then you can take a break,” Brad says. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

That makes Walt perk up, quirking an eyebrow as he sits back up. “Yeah?”

Brad nods.

“Okay, let’s go, quiz me,” Walt says, sitting up straight and looking the part of an attentive student, and Brad has a pretty good idea what Walt is going to request for his reward.

 

\--------------------

 

Nate looks up from his study guide, sure that if he goes over it again his head will explode from the sheer number of times he’s read the same information. He looks across the table to watch Ray, who is chewing on a pen that he’ll sporadically pull out of his mouth in order to make a note on the article he’s reading for a paper he’s working on.

There are several other people in the library, but they’re the only two at the table in the corner, the one they often like to work at together. They learned early on in their relationship that they cannot study together in either of their rooms or living spaces in general, as they are too easily tempted.

He likes watching Ray work, eyes scanning over whatever he’s reading, retaining information at a rate Nate almost envies. 

Apparently, he’s been staring too long, as Ray finally looks up from his article to catch Nate watching him, and he raises his eyebrows in question. When Nate doesn’t do more than send a small smile his way, Ray kicks him softly underneath the table.

“Time for a break?” Ray asks, though starts putting his stuff away without requiring Nate’s response.

Nate follows his lead, putting everything in his bag before following Ray out of the common study room of the library to the adjoining coffee shop. 

“Oh, I almost forgot, I talked to the guys last night and everyone is ok with you moving in next month,” Nate tells him as they wait in line.

Ray grins and turns to look at Nate, his back to the front of the line. “How long did it take to convince Poke?”

Nate rolls his eyes. “Not as long as you thought it would, and I didn’t have to promise to name our first-born child after him or anything. He did try to fight it though.”

“When is he gonna admit his undying love for me and deal with his jealousy in healthier ways?” Ray asks, not even needing Nate to tell him that the line is moving before he takes a step backward.

“It wouldn’t matter anyway,” Nate says, reaching out to take Ray’s hand. “I don’t share, I’ve told you that.”

“So selfish,” Ray says, taking a step forward into Nate’s space, and lifting himself up on his toes.

Nate gets the hint and leans down to kiss him softly, tightening his hold on Ray’s hand.

Only a moment passes before they hear the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them, breaking them apart. Nate feels his ears heat up when he notices the line ahead of them is almost completely gone other than one person finishing up their order, and he maneuvers Ray up the few feet to get back into line.

“So, who all is gonna be there this summer?” Ray asks as they wait off to the side for their drinks.

“You and me,” Nate says, thinking through what they’d talked about last night. “Kocher is gonna be in town at least for a month or so. Poke is subletting to Lilley, I think he’s got some film project he’s working on. And Brad still hasn’t found anyone to sublet to.”

Ray nods, watching the girl behind the counter make their drinks for a moment before something clicks in his head and he turns to Nate. “Oh, ya know what, Rudy was mentioning yesterday about wanting to stay in town this summer. You should tell Brad.”

Their names are called and they both grab their coffees and leave the crowded shop, making their way outside to walk around the quad – a habit for them during their study breaks that they’ve done so often this school year that it’s not even discussed anymore.

“How long do you think it’ll take before our first fight about my dirty laundry?” Ray asks after a minute of walking in silence.

Nate grins. “Four weeks.”

Ray scoffs. “Try two.”

“I’d bet you, but I know you, and I know you’d go out of your way to force it early and I don’t want that,” Nate tells him, reaching down to grab Ray’s free hand as they walk. “Maybe, and bear with me here, just maybe, you could not wait until every piece of clothing you own is dirty and on the bedroom floor before doing laundry.”

“Oh, Nate, you’re such a dreamer. It’s one of the many things I love about you,” Ray says, leaning in to kiss Nate’s cheek.

He can’t help but chuckle, despite himself. 

“Ya know what I’m most excited about right now?” Nate asks after another few minutes of walking in silence drinking their coffees.

“Hm?”

“The day you move in.”

Ray looks over at him and quirks his eyebrow. “Can’t wait to lift heavy things and carry them around and try to figure out how to fit everything into the tiny space that is your bedroom?”

Nate shakes his head. “Remember, your mom told you that because you weren’t coming home for the summer she was going to come up and help you move out of the dorm.”

That makes Ray stop in his tracks and Nate gets yanked back a little when he keeps walking.

“I forgot about that,” Ray says, voice sounding grim. “Maybe this is a mistake, this whole living together thing.”

Nate rolls his eyes and tugs on Ray’s hand, getting him to start walking again.

“Stop being dramatic, it’s gonna be fine.”

“Jesus Christ, Nate, how can you even say that? With what happened with your family, why would you ever think you and I are capable of handling another meeting the parent’s scenario. Are you trying to jinx us?”

“My family loves you. Sure, the beginning was a nightmare, but you’re ok now,” Nate reminds him. Nate’s mom and Ray have even talked to each other on the phone a few times since their meeting and every time she talks about Nate coming home she tells him to bring Ray along too. He’s starting to worry he won’t even be welcome home if he doesn’t bring Ray with him.

“Yeah, _now_ , once I was able to charm them all with my good looks and mesmerizing story-telling,” Ray suggests. 

“Are you saying I won’t be able to charm your mom into liking me?”

That makes Ray stop and send Nate another unamused look. “Nate, you know damn well that you are like the ideal guy to bring home to the parents. The problem is, ‘the parents’ in this case, is my mom.”

“I still don’t know what that means,” Nate says with a sigh, though he has a bad feeling he knows exactly what the problem is, he just wishes Ray would stop thinking like this.

Ray pauses, thinking over his words before he shakes his head and widens his smile just a little past natural.

“Nothing, never mind, yeah I guess I just have to suck it up and let you two meet,” he says with a shrug.

Nate contemplates pushing the issue, but they’re almost back at the library and now doesn’t feel like the best time to get into Ray’s deep-rooted shame over his family's socioeconomic status.

So, instead he just smiles and squeezes Ray’s hand again. “Great, she’s gonna love me.”

Ray rolls his eyes and lets his smile fall to an easier grin, reaching up to leave a short kiss on Nate’s lip as he walks through the door Nate’s holding for him. 

“Yeah, probably.” Nate can swear he hears Ray mumble as he passes.

Nate smiles and follows him back to their table.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
